Wotan Wilke Möhring aka “Kommissar Thorsten Falke” from ARD’s TV sequel “Tatort” was a guest at the Audi Lounge during the DTM opening round at Hockenheim. In addition, the popular German actor got to enjoy a ride in the DTM race taxi as a passenger of GP2 driver Daniel Abt, the son of DTM team boss Hans-Jürgen Abt. Andreas Kuffner, the 2011 World Champion and 2012 Olympic gold mealist at the Men’s eight rowing competition, experienced the Hockenheimring from a passenger’s perspective as well.

Albuquerque defeats Scheider – in forklift race

Even before the wheels of their Audi RS 5 DTM cars started turning for the first time in the DTM season opener at Hockenheim Timo Scheider and Filipe Albuquerque battled each other in an unusual competition. The two Audi ‘factory’ drivers had to master a timed race on a slalom course with forklifts. Speed was not the only key to success in this challenge, as two slicks had to be balanced through the traffic cones without dropping them. In the end, Filipe Albuquerque was the front runner by a narrow margin of 2-1 victorious rounds. “I had a bit of fortune because I was driving in the better lane. In any event, this was huge fun,” said the Portuguese from Audi Sport Team Rosberg.

Felix Baumgartner visits Audi DTM team

Red Bull extreme athlete and world record holder Felix Baumgartner, who acquired world fame with his parachute jump from an altitude of 38 kilometers, visited the Audi DTM squad at Hockenheim. At the Audi Team & Media Hospitality, the Austrian, among others, met with the seven-time Le Mans winner Jacky Ickx and ex-Formula 1 World Champion Keke Rosberg. Baumgartner’s Red Bull colleague Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg paid a brief visit to Audi at Hockenheim as well.

Iron Man Tambay attracts attention

A touch of Hollywood wafted through the air of the DTM paddock at Hockenheim last weekend. On the occasion of the “Iron Man 3” movie’s start in Germany, Adrien Tambay advertised the latest Marvel action film on his Audi RS 5 DTM. Audi Sport’s partner Alpinestars produced special overalls for the youngster and his pit crew featuring an Iron Man look and Uvex supplied the matching helmets. In the race at Brands Hatch (Great Britain) on May 19, Adrien Tambay will be on the grid sporting the Iron Man look once more.

New attraction for DTM fans

Premiere at the DTM at Hockenheim: As part of the traditional Pit Walk, spectators for the first time had the opportunity to watch the pit stop practice of the DTM teams on Sunday morning. Effective immediately, the 30-minute practice replaces the previous warm-up and offers the fans a chance of getting into close touch with the Audi RS 5 DTM. An optimal tire change on a DTM race car takes around 2.5 seconds and is always worth watching.

Russian journalists visit the DTM

The Russian debut of the DTM on August 4 has some foreshadowings. Following Audi’s presentation of the RS 5 DTM on Red Square in Moscow in February, a group of journalists from Russia now visited the DTM opener at Hockenheim. During their visit they gained in-depth insights behind the scenes of the Audi DTM squad and had the opportunity to explore the race track on motor scooters together with the two Audi drivers Edoardo Mortara and Adrien Tambay.

Allan McNish visits DTM colleagues

On podium at the WEC race at Spa on Saturday night and at Hockenheim on Sunday morning: sports car driver Allan McNish used the opportunity to visit his colleagues in the DTM at the first race of the season on his way back from Spa to Monte Carlo. Chris Reinke, Overall Project Leader LMP at Audi Sport, stopped at Hockenheim as well. Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich even commuted twice: to Hockenheim on Friday, Spa on Saturday and back to Hockenheim on Sunday.

Jamie Green in Twitter interview

Audi is now offering a new service to journalists and fans in the DTM: On every DTM weekend, questions can be addressed to a driver on Audi Sport’s Twitter page at (@audi__sport). At Hockenheim, Jamie Green, who answered questions like “What’s your favorite dish?” (Spaghetti Carbonara) and “Which Audi do you drive as a private car?” (Audi Q7) started the series of interviews. All relevant dates and hashtags will be announced sufficiently ahead of time.

Vincent Vosse and Laurens Vanthoor visit Audi’s WEC squad

Vincent Vosse visited the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) at its Belgian round. The team director of the Belgian Audi Club Team WRT was on location for the race weekend at Spa-Francorchamps. Laurens Vanthoor, who is leading the FIA GT Series with the Audi R8 LMS ultra, wouldn’t miss the opportunity of watching the sports car race in his native Belgium either.

Audi is partner of ADAC GT Masters again

Audi is the Official Car Partner of the ADAC GT Masters again this season. Consequently, quattro GmbH handed over seven new cars to ADAC on the first race weekend of the series at Oschersleben. Two Audi R8 V10 plus vehicles will be used as safety cars, one R8 as the leading car, two Audi A4 Avant for the race directors plus one A4 Avant and one A6 Avant for organizational purposes.

Jan Brunstedt wins at season opener in Sweden

Success for Audi driver Jan Brunstedt in the Swedish GT Championship: In his Audi R8 LMS, the local hero secured a commanding victory in the season opener at Knutstorp. Brunstedt, who had started the race from the second row of the grid, saw the checkered flag as the winner after 40 minutes with an advantage of 4.5 seconds.

Rahel Frey celebrates debut in Audi R8 LMS Cup

Last year’s DTM driver Rahel Frey delivered a promising debut run in the Audi R8 LMS Cup. The Swiss, in fourth place, barely missed a podium finish in both races at the season opener at Zhuhai, China, and after the first of six race weekends occupies fifth place in the standings with a score of 24 points. On her first run in the popular Audi one-make cup in Asia, Frey enjoyed prominent support by the former Olympic épée fencing gold medalist Britta Heidemann, who visited the race at Zhuhai. The Malaysian ex-Formula 1 driver Alex Yoong took the lead of the standings at the Audi R8 LMS Cup season opener. In the first 18-lap race, Yoong won ahead of Adderly Fong, the 2012 runner-up. In the second heat, Yoong only had to admit defeat to the Portuguese André Couto.

Two podiums in Brazil

Brothers Fábio and Walter Ebrahim started the new season in the Brazilian GT Championship with two podium successes. In the season opener at Anhembí near São Paulo they took second place in the Audi R8 LMS ultra in the first race. In the second run on Sunday, the Audi duo again shone with second place.

A word from ... Marcel Fässler

Was the victory in the WEC race at Spa with the Audi R18 e-tron quattro a special one for you?

Yes, absolutely. It was a brilliant weekend. Particularly the race was fantastic. But after our misfortune with the puncture in the beginning, Ben (Tréluyer), André (Lotterer) and I had to run flat-out. The guys from Audi Sport Team Joest did a great job too. A successful day in every respect.

The victory at Spa was the second one for Audi within only eight days. Last weekend, you were successful in the Endurance Championship at the Nürburgring at the wheel of an Audi R8 LMS ultra. That isn’t something a race driver experiences every day either...

Winning in two very different types of race cars from the same brand so shortly in succession is really special indeed – plus on two classic circuits such as Spa and the Nordschleife, which are among my absolutely favorite tracks.

Speaking of the Nordschleife: Contrary to the Le Mans 24 Hours, you’ve still got some unfinished business at the one-day classic in the Eifel. In two weeks from now, you’ll be tackling it again in the Audi R8 LMS ultra – with what expectations?

It’ll be a super tough race with strong rivals. Still, I’d like to win. I’m running with a really good team (G-Drive Racing by Phoenix) and will share the work in the cockpit with quick team-mates (Marc Basseng, Frank Stippler, Markus Winkelhock). By winning two weeks ago, we showed that it’s the right fit and that we’re in a good position. But first of all, we’ve obviously got to finish.

Audi expands from China into other Asian markets with the Audi R8 LMS Cup. Following the successful premiere season in China in 2012, Audi’s first one-make race series worldwide will now visit circuits in South Korea, Malaysia and Macau...